Sexual arousal patterns of bisexual men revisited

Men who identify themselves as bisexual report feeling sexually aroused by both men and women. However, past research has not demonstrated that such men exhibit substantial genital arousal to both male and female erotic stimuli, suggesting that they identify as bisexual for reasons other than their genital arousal pattern. The purpose of the present study was to examine arousal patterns among bisexual men who were recruited using stringent criteria involving sexual and romantic experience with both men and women in order to increase the likelihood of finding a bisexual arousal pattern. Bisexual men in the present study demonstrated bisexual patterns of both subjective and genital arousal. It remains unclear which pattern is most typical of contemporary bisexual men: the present results supporting a bisexual arousal pattern, or previous results not finding one. In either case, understanding men with bisexual arousal patterns could help illuminate the etiology and development of male sexual orientation.

► Bisexual men have not shown a bisexual genital arousal pattern in past research.
► We examined sexual arousal patterns of highly selected bisexual men.
► On average, they had bisexual subjective and genital sexual arousal patterns.
► It remains unclear how common bisexual arousal patterns are.
► Men with bisexual arousal patterns remain an intriguing, under-studied group.